It looks like sunspot 930, it's where 930 should be (almost), but it is not 930. It is sunspot 933.

The real sunspot 930 is just now emerging over the sun's eastern limb, as shown in this image from Franck Charlier of Marines, Val d'Oise, France. We care about sunspot 930 because last month it unleashed four X-flares and sparked intense auroras. For the past two weeks it has been transiting the far side of the sun, but now it's back, possibly to stir up more space weather.

While sunspot 930 was on the sun's far side, a look-a-like sunspot sprouted up just ahead of it--hence the confusion. Apologies from Dr. Tony Phillips!

COTTONWOOD SUNRISE: Why wake up at dawn? Because you never know what's waiting outside...

"On Dec. 23rd, the pink rays of the early morning sun lit up the ice-covered branches of our cottonwood tree," reports Lois Reinert of Tracy, Minnesota. "The spectacular sight lasted about two minutes before the sun rose into a cloud bank. What a magical moment during this special season!"

Cottonwood trees are perfect for this kind of display. They thrive where the ground is moist and the air is humid. In winter, frost and ice love to accumulate on their widely-spaced branches.

Got a cottonwood? Get behind it at dawn. There may be a magical moment waiting in the shade.

Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.

Notes: LD is a "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach.

Essential Web Links

NOAA Space Environment Center -- The official U.S. government bureau for real-time monitoring of solar and geophysical events, research in solar-terrestrial physics, and forecasting solar and geophysical disturbances.

Atmospheric Optics -- the first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena.